Laramie County Health Officer Dr. Stan Hartman says people are getting a lot of incorrect information about face masks and their effectiveness in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

Dr. Hartman called into the ''Weekend in Wyoming' program on Saturday on a.m. 650, KGAB to discuss a proposed Laramie County face mask mandate.

A draft of the mandate, written by Dr. Hartman, is to be considered by the Laramie County Health Board at a special meeting at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 27. If the local health board approves the mandate, state Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist will make the final decision as to whether the mandate can be implemented in Laramie County. The county Health Board asked Hartman to write a draft mandate modeled on one that went into effect earlier this year in Teton County.

That mandate includes a medical exemption for people who have health issues that would prevent them from wearing face masks, and Dr. Hartman said the local draft mandate has similar exemptions.

But he also said that a lot of the claims being made about face masks are simply incorrect and that such information is giving people the impression that the masks are unhealthy for otherwise healthy people to wear. He said doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals have been wearing face masks for many years with no ill effect.

Hartman also said claims that face masks are not an effective and inexpensive way to limit the spread of the coronavirus are just simply not true. You can hear the entire ''Weekend In Wyoming" interview with Dr. Hartman in the audio attached to this article.

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